1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer security. In particular, the invention relates to authentication for information exchange.
2. Description of Related Art
The rapid growth of computer and communication technologies has facilitated business transactions in a number of ways. One particular area of business transactions in the electronic commerce. Consumers can now conduct commercial transactions with business entities conveniently and efficiently over the communication networks such as the Internet.
A major problem in electronic commerce is security. Consumers want to securely access remote sites on the Internet without disclosing their identities or activities. Business entities want to keep their transactions secret from others to increase consumers's trust and to protect their own business information and trade secrets. The key aspects of communication security include confidentiality and information integrity. An individual user wants to be assured that he or she is dealing with a trusted business entity to keep his or her activities private. A business entity also wants to be assured that it is conducting business with a genuine customer and not some impostor. The process to ensure that the two parties who are doing business with each other are two true and genuine parties is called authentication.
A simple way to authenticate a party is to use a user identification code and a password. Although the use of a user ID and a password is sufficient for simple transactions, they are inadequate for more complex commercial transactions. When a user ID or a password is transmitted in the clear over a communication network, there is a high possibility that the information can be intercepted by illegal users.
Therefore there is a need in the technology to provide a reliable and efficient method to authenticate parties involved in an information exchange over a communication network.